Recaps

Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor led Blackstone Valley’s forces, including a hidden demonic expert, to attack the Azure Elixir Sect. The sect’s annihilation alarm sounded, and its leaders ordered the defenders to prepare for battle and activate the Mountain-Guarding Grand Formation.

• Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor and Black Baleful Adept led Blackstone Valley’s disciples toward the Azure Elixir Sect, while a masked late transforming force realm expert revealed demonic inner qi.
• Blackstone Valley’s forces arrived outside Azure Elixir City, where Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor ordered them to show no mercy and assigned Lin Fan to himself.
• The four late transforming force realm experts released their pressure over the Azure Elixir Sect, alerting two outer sect elders to the invasion.
• The two outer sect elders shouted an alarm and rang the enormous bronze bell, throwing the Azure Elixir Sect into chaos.
• The sect master and inner sect elders heard the annihilation alarm and ordered the defenders summoned and the Mountain-Guarding Grand Formation activated.

The Azure Elixir Sect faced an invasion by Blackstone Valley, backed by four late transforming force realm experts, and struggled to defend itself as Azure Elixir City fell. The Azure Elixir Ancestor confronted the attackers, who surrounded him and began their assault.

• Four late transforming force realm auras descended on the Azure Elixir Sect, prompting the elders to muster its forces.
• The Azure Elixir Ancestor emerged from seclusion, recognized the invasion as a war of annihilation, and hurried to the sect gates.
• Over a thousand Blackstone Valley disciples sacked Azure Elixir City, then advanced up the mountain toward the sect.
• The Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor, two experts from Prince Gao's Manor, and the Black Baleful Adept waited above the gates as the Azure Elixir Ancestor rallied the sect to fight.
• The Blackstone Valley forces clashed with the Azure Elixir Sect, while the four enemy experts surrounded the Azure Elixir Ancestor.
• The Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor struck first, launching a crushing palm attack at the Azure Elixir Ancestor.

Four late transforming force experts nearly destroyed the Azure Elixir Sect, but a masked steel force realm expert arrived and killed them all. The Azure Elixir Sect survived the immediate assault, though its ancestor, elders, and disciples were gravely wounded.

• Four late transforming force experts overwhelmed Azure Elixir Ancestor, shattering his defenses and leaving him severely injured.
• Azure Elixir Sect elders charged in to help, but the attackers quickly wounded them and Blackstone Valley's Battle Elixir-strengthened disciples routed the sect's fighters.
• As Azure Elixir Ancestor and the sect faced defeat, a masked expert with steel force realm astral qi arrived.
• The masked expert killed Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor with a single palm strike.
• The masked expert swiftly killed the other three late transforming force experts as they tried to flee.

Lin Fan secretly rescued the Azure Elixir Sect from Blackstone Valley’s invasion and saved the Su Family from attackers in Azure Elixir City. After learning Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor had arranged the assault to seize the sect’s holdings and capture him, Lin Fan turned his attention to the plot’s greedy instigators.

• Lin Fan defeated the four late transforming force realm experts and knocked the Blackstone Valley invaders unconscious before vanishing without revealing himself.
• Lin Fan remembered that Su Yuanshan and his family were in Azure Elixir City and raced from his mountaintop courtyard to protect them.
• Lin Fan subdued Blackstone Valley disciples as they tried to break into the Su Residence, then interrogated them.
• Lin Fan learned that Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor had allied with Blackstone Valley to destroy the Azure Elixir Sect, capture Lin Fan, and divide its holdings.
• Lin Fan reacted with cold anger after discovering that Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor had arranged the attack for profit.

Lin Fan disguised himself as an unknown steel force realm expert, saved the Azure Elixir Sect from Blackstone Valley’s attack, and then traveled to Blackstone Valley to take its treasury’s silver. He reached the treasury beneath Blackrock Main Peak and prepared to get past its protective formations.

• Lin Fan reassured the Su Family, then disguised himself and went to the Azure Elixir Sect, where he killed four late transforming force realm attackers and knocked out over a thousand Blackstone Valley disciples.
• Lin Fan left without revealing his identity and flew to Blackstone Valley to claim its silver, planning to leave the other treasures for the Azure Elixir Sect.
• Lin Fan entered Blackstone Valley, located the treasury beneath Blackrock Main Peak, and silently knocked out the disciples and elders in his path.
• Lin Fan arrived at the treasury’s layered protective formations, which he believed would pose little obstacle to his steel force realm strength.

Lin Fan dismantled Blackstone Valley’s treasury defenses and collected its gold and silver, gaining over eighteen billion taels. He searched the Scripture Repository for a few books to memorize before leaving the silent valley without regret.

• Lin Fan used Astral Force to break the treasury’s formations and open its doors.
• Lin Fan topped up his system with the treasury’s gold and silver, raising his balance to over eighteen billion taels.
• Lin Fan took the banknotes and several jade ornaments but left the land deeds and commerce guild certificates behind.
• Lin Fan searched Blackstone Valley’s Scripture Repository, returned the demonic cultivation manuals, and used 40,000-fold Cultivation Acceleration to memorize several books.
• Lin Fan left the Scripture Repository and looked back at Blackstone Valley without attachment.

Lin Fan returned from Blackstone Valley to the Azure Elixir Sect after defeating its attackers, while the sect members wondered about the masked expert who had saved them. Back at his peaceful hilltop courtyard, he reassured Chu Lingxi, Lin Ruoruo, and Su Qingwei before going to see the children.

• Lin Fan raced back to the Azure Elixir Sect at Bright Force Realm speed after leaving Blackstone Valley.
• The Azure Elixir Sect elders tended the wounded Azure Elixir Ancestor and speculated about the masked Steel Force Realm expert who had defeated the invaders.
• Lin Fan slipped back into his hilltop courtyard, where Chu Lingxi and Lin Ruoruo welcomed him with relief.
• Chu Lingxi explained that Su Qingwei had driven away low-level raiders who tried to approach the courtyard.
• Lin Fan reassured the others, shared a quiet moment with Su Qingwei, and went to visit the children.

Lin Fan kept his role in saving the Azure Elixir Sect secret from his family. After interrogating the captured Blackstone Valley disciples, the sect uncovered the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s plot but remained unaware of the power behind its mysterious allies, and the Azure Elixir Ancestor vowed to retaliate.

• Lin Fan visited the two young children in his family and concealed that he had been the masked expert who saved the Azure Elixir Sect.
• The Azure Elixir Ancestor ordered the captured Blackstone Valley disciples interrogated, and they revealed the alliance between Blackstone Valley and the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce.
• The disciples identified the Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor and the Black Baleful Adept but could not explain the origins of the other two late transforming force realm experts.
• The Azure Elixir Ancestor and the Sect Master suspected a greater power had backed the invasion, unaware that the mysterious experts had served Prince Gao's Manor.
• The Azure Elixir Ancestor declared that the Azure Elixir Sect would attack Blackstone Valley and the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce to seize their holdings and avenge the assault.

After repelling the invasion, the Azure Elixir Sect prepared to strike back at Blackstone Valley and seize Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s assets. At the commerce headquarters in Azure Cloud Commandery, Granny Qian and the Chief Steward learned that their expected victory had failed when Azure Elixir Sect disciples stormed the building.

• The Azure Elixir Ancestor ordered the sect to heal its wounded, guard its mountain gate, march on Blackstone Valley, and seize Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s nearby businesses.
• An hour later, the Azure Elixir Ancestor led elders and elite disciples toward Blackstone Valley while other squads headed to nearby commandery cities.
• Lin Fan watched the expedition depart and wondered how Granny Qian would react when the Azure Elixir Sect reached Azure Cloud Commandery.
• Granny Qian and the Chief Steward waited at Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s headquarters, expecting the Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor to defeat the Azure Elixir Sect and planning to seize Azure Elixir Hall.
• Azure Elixir Sect disciples stormed the commerce headquarters, bound its personnel, and made Granny Qian and the Chief Steward realize their sect had lost.

The Commandery City Chief Steward, Granny Qian, and other Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce stewards escaped the occupied outpost and fled toward Capital City after learning that the Azure Elixir Sect had defeated their alliance. They did not know they were fleeing into a greater danger, while Prince Gao's Manor spies observed the battle's aftermath.

• The Commandery City Chief Steward, Granny Qian, and the others escaped the Azure Elixir Sect disciples through a secret passage beneath the commerce guild's meeting hall.
• The Chief Steward and his companions concluded that Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce had lost its outposts and debated hiding in a remote town or seeking refuge in Capital City.
• Granny Qian feared Lin Fan would punish her for their old grudge, and the group chose to flee to Capital City.
• The Chief Steward, Granny Qian, and the others bought muscle refinement realm demon beast steeds and rode desperately toward Capital City.
• The fleeing stewards did not know that the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce headquarters in Capital City was their true dead end, while Prince Gao's Manor spies had witnessed the battle in Azure Elixir City.

Prince Gao learned that a masked Steel Force Realm expert had ruined his attack on the Azure Elixir Sect and killed his two covert attendants. His steward proposed seizing the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s wealth instead, and Prince Gao agreed to pursue that target.

• Prince Gao's Manor spies rushed to the Capital City and reported that the Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor, Black Baleful Adept, and both of Prince Gao’s covert attendants had been killed in the defeat at the Azure Elixir Sect.
• Prince Gao reacted with fury and demanded to know how an army of over a thousand fighters and two late Transforming Force experts could have lost.
• A spy explained that a masked, black-robed expert had intervened, killed an attendant with one palm strike, and was likely a Steel Force Realm expert.
• Prince Gao lamented that he had not sent a Steel Force Realm expert and cursed the stranger for ruining his plan to seize the Azure Elixir Sect’s treasury and kill Lin Fan.
• Prince Gao’s white-haired steward suggested taking the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s assets in compensation, and Prince Gao recognized it as a new target.

Prince Gao ordered Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce seized and its people sent to Black Robe to be sacrificed in creating a replacement Demonic Path expert, while justifying the move as repayment for his losses. Granny Qian and the Azure Cloud Commandery Chief Steward raced toward the Capital City, arriving close behind the Prince's Manor Secret Agents carrying their report.

• Prince Gao ordered his guards to seize Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce's headquarters, treasury, and branches across the Zhao Kingdom.
• Prince Gao ordered every person connected to the Commerce arrested and secretly delivered to Black Robe as material for producing a new Late Transforming Force Realm Demonic Path expert.
• Prince Gao reasoned that the Commerce's role in the battle against the Azure Elixir Sect gave him grounds to confiscate its wealth and people, and regretted that Lin Fan had survived.
• Granny Qian, the Azure Cloud Commandery Chief Steward, and their companions rode without rest toward the Capital City.
• Granny Qian's party and the Prince's Manor Secret Agents entered the Capital City only a short time apart.

Granny Qian and her party reached Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce's Capital City headquarters and were taken in by the Chief Manager, unaware that Prince Gao's Manor had already targeted the organization. A purge force surrounded the headquarters and swiftly subdued its hundreds of occupants, leaving Granny Qian and her companions in danger.

• Granny Qian and her party arrived at the Capital City headquarters and told the Chief Manager that the Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor and his allies had been defeated and their Azure Cloud Commandery base seized.
• The Chief Manager offered Granny Qian and her companions rooms, food, and work at the headquarters.
• Prince Gao's Manor's purge force surrounded the headquarters, sealing its entrances and exits.
• The purge teams rushed inside and knocked out, bound, and carried away the headquarters' staff in freight wagons.

Prince Gao's Manor captured Granny Qian and the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce leaders, while the Azure Elixir Sect rebuilt its strength and Lin Fan continued cultivating. The sect prospered under fair prices, but Lin Fan remained wary of two unidentified late transforming force realm enemies.

• Prince Gao's Manor warriors knocked out Granny Qian, the Chief Steward of Azure Cloud Commandery, and their aides, then bound and loaded them into packed wagons.
• Drivers from Prince Gao's Manor carried the captives away, leaving them destined to fuel the cultivation of a late transforming force realm demonic path practitioner.
• The Azure Elixir Sect recovered from the battle, recruited new disciples, and took over the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce's branch shops.
• The sect elders followed Lin Fan's advice and kept pill prices steady, earning the trust of cultivators across nearby commanderies.
• Lin Fan used pill refinement to temper his power and devoted most of his time to cultivation, concerned that the two unidentified experts might return.

The discovery of an enormous gold mine near the Zhao-Wei border threw the Zhao court into a struggle for control of its profits. Prince Gao suspended his plan to assassinate Lin Fan and redirected his forces to the contest, while Lin Fan remained unaware and lived peacefully at the Azure Elixir Sect.

• An herb-gathering martial artist discovered a vast gold deposit near the Zhao-Wei border, and the Imperial Court secretly sealed off the mountains and began mining.
• Prince Gao learned of the discovery and halted his plan to send a steel force realm expert to kill Lin Fan, fearing the assassination could weaken his faction's bid for gold mine rights.
• Prince Gao reassigned the expert and concentrated his manor's resources and influence on the court struggle over the mine.
• Nobles and factions battled over the mine's mining, smelting, distribution, and garrison rights while Lin Fan remained unaware of the upheaval.
• More than two months passed as Lin Fan refined pills and cultivated at the Azure Elixir Sect, spending peaceful days with Su Qingwei, the children, and Mao Mao.

Lin Ruoruo and Chu Lingxi each broke through to a new cultivation realm while Lin Fan declined the Azure Elixir Sect elders’ requests to take more disciples. As his own breakthrough to mid steel force realm neared, Lin Fan prepared to cultivate in seclusion and asked Su Qingwei to keep the courtyard undisturbed.

• Lin Ruoruo broke through to the skin tempering realm through her own effort, and Lin Fan, Su Qingwei, and Mao Mao congratulated her.
• Chu Lingxi advanced from the skin tempering realm to the muscle refinement realm with Lin Fan’s guidance and abundant resources.
• Lin Fan repeatedly refused the Azure Elixir Sect elders’ requests to accept more personal disciples, deciding that Chu Lingxi was enough.
• Lin Fan’s inner qi approached four million strands, bringing him close to the mid steel force realm.
• Lin Fan told Su Qingwei he was going to a secluded cavern to attempt his breakthrough and asked her to turn away visitors while he was gone.

Lin Fan secretly left the Azure Elixir Sect and traveled to a deep underground cavern to break through to the mid Steel Force Realm. He settled in a hidden stone chamber and activated forty-thousandfold cultivation acceleration to begin cultivating.

• Lin Fan instructed Lin Ruoruo and Chu Lingxi to stay in the courtyard under Su Qingwei’s care while he was away.
• Lin Fan replenished the Estate Protection Array’s Formation Disc and told the Azure Elixir Sect Master and elders he would cultivate in seclusion, prompting them to seal the route to his courtyard.
• Lin Fan slipped away from the sect at night and headed toward the Underground Cavern where he had first reached the Steel Force Realm.
• Lin Fan used his inner qi to navigate the cavern’s branching passages and reached a chamber about six thousand meters underground.
• Lin Fan enlarged the chamber, sat on a stone platform, and activated forty-thousandfold cultivation acceleration.

Lin Fan broke through to the mid Steel Force realm, causing a violent upheaval that shook the surrounding mountains and a distant village. He traveled leisurely toward the Azure Elixir Sect, gathering information along the way, until a plain carriage passing him aroused his suspicion.

• Lin Fan shattered the barrier to the mid Steel Force realm, and the resulting shockwaves shook the underground caverns, nearby mountains, and a distant village.
• Lin Fan tested his expanded perception, concealed his new cultivation with the Flying Dragon Breath Concealment Technique, and left the cavern.
• Lin Fan rode toward the Azure Elixir Sect, stopping in towns to browse, buy gifts for Su Qingwei, Lin Ruoruo, and Chu Lingxi, and listen to travelers' conversations.
• Lin Fan noticed something amiss when a plain black covered carriage driven by a bald man passed him.

Lin Fan followed a suspicious carriage to a Split-One Gang compound and uncovered a Demonic Path outpost where captives were used to harvest blood essence. After defeating the gang members and guards, he freed three unconscious martial artists, who awoke in terror.

• Lin Fan sensed three comatose martial artists in a carriage and secretly followed it for more than a day.
• The carriage arrived at the Split-One Gang compound, where gang members carried the captives toward a hidden cellar.
• Lin Fan subdued four gang members and descended into the cellar, discovering dozens of martial artists bound to torture racks as part of a Demonic Path cultivation outpost.
• Lin Fan overwhelmed the outpost guards and freed the captives from their restraints by defeating their captors.
• Lin Fan dissolved the seals on the three unconscious martial artists, who awoke to the bloody cavern and panicked.

Lin Fan interrogated the Split-One Gang and uncovered how the Demonic Path outpost captured martial artists to refine Blood Beads for a larger supply chain. He learned that a masked superior would return in eight days, then dealt with the gang and rescued the captives.

• Lin Fan heard how three young cultivators had been lured or drugged into captivity and learned that the outpost used local gangs to abduct martial artists.
• The Split-One Gang members revealed that captives were tortured in an Iron Frame Formation for three days to produce Blood Beads, most of which went to a mysterious superior.
• Lin Fan learned that the masked superior would collect the beads in eight days at midnight, using a black lantern at the compound entrance as a signal.
• Lin Fan dealt with the demonic cultivators and Split-One Gang members according to their crimes and cooperation, then freed the captive martial artists.
• Lin Fan gave the rescued martial artists Healing Pills and told them to recover before returning home and avoiding the area.

Lin Fan returned briefly to reassure his family, then spent eight days cultivating and waiting at the Split-One Gang hideout for the Demonic Path expert collecting Blood Beads. On the appointed evening, he sensed the expert approaching, but the figure suddenly stopped miles from the compound.

• Lin Fan returned to the Azure Elixir Sect, reassured Su Qingwei and the others, and then went back to the Split-One Gang hideout.
• Lin Fan resolved to grow stronger and activated fifty-thousandfold cultivation acceleration while keeping watch for the Demonic Path expert.
• When a carriage brought two unconscious martial artists to the compound, Lin Fan freed them and sent them away safely.
• Lin Fan waited and cultivated at the hideout for eight days, then hung a black-cloth lantern above the gate on the appointed evening.
• Lin Fan sensed a powerful martial expert racing toward the compound, but the newcomer stopped when still a dozen or so miles away.

Lin Fan captured a Demonic Path envoy and learned that the faction’s headquarters was guarded by a mid steel force realm expert. After extracting information about nearby outposts, he destroyed them, rescued their prisoners, and kept his identity hidden.

• Lin Fan pursued the fleeing black-robed envoy, subdued him, and learned that he had fled because the outpost’s blood fiend aura had nearly vanished.
• The envoy revealed that the collected Blood Beads went to a heavily fortified headquarters guarded by a mid steel force realm expert.
• Lin Fan extracted the locations and details of more than a dozen nearby outposts, then dealt with the envoy.
• Lin Fan destroyed the nearby outposts and Blood Refining Arrays, rescuing the captive martial artists.
• Lin Fan treated the survivors, gave them money to return home, and left without revealing his identity.

After clearing the remaining Demonic Path strongholds, Lin Fan returned to the Azure Elixir Sect and reunited with his family. He resumed refining pills, teaching disciples, and cultivating in his peaceful courtyard.

• Lin Fan destroyed the blood-refining formations and dealt with demonic cultivators at the remaining small strongholds before racing back to the Azure Elixir Sect.
• Lin Fan reunited with Su Qingwei, their toddlers, Lin Ruoruo, Chu Lingxi, and Mao Mao in his courtyard.
• Lin Fan visited the sect’s main hall, where the Sect Master and elders told him his perfect pills were in high demand and his lectures helped disciples overcome bottlenecks.
• Lin Fan settled into a routine of refining pills for the sect, teaching the Pill Dao, and devoting his remaining time to cultivation.

Lin Fan continued cultivating as he worried about the Demonic Path threat, while Prince Gao secured a large share of the border gold mine and ordered it mined around the clock. The mine’s growing operations and their effects on nearby communities made the secret increasingly difficult to hide from Wei Kingdom spies.

• Lin Fan trained steadily for more than a month, aiming to protect his family and the Azure Elixir Sect from the Demonic Path.
• Prince Gao’s Manor reported that captured Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce members had been turned into High-Grade Resentment Blood Beads, helping Lord Black Robe create a new late Transforming Force fighter.
• Prince Gao dismissed the risk of Wei Kingdom discovering the mine and ordered his forces to accelerate mining day and night.
• The Zhao Kingdom’s sealed mountains drove nearby hunters and herb gatherers from their livelihoods, while shortages and local rumors drew attention to the area.
• Wei Kingdom spies observed the sealed mountains, increased ore transport, and troop movements, making the gold mine difficult to conceal.

The Wei Kingdom discovered that Zhao had secretly sealed off a vast gold mine near their border and decided to seize it by force. The court ordered a covert surprise attack, though Wei’s garrisons were still several hundred li from the mine.

• Wei spies investigated Zhao’s border lockdown and confirmed that the sealed mountains concealed an enormous gold mine.
• The news reached the Wei court, where officials feared Zhao would use the mine’s wealth to outstrip Wei in strength.
• The Wei Kingdom’s ruler declared that Wei would take the mine and ordered troops and martial experts to prepare for an attack.
• The Wei court chose to move its forces secretly and invade without declaring war, arguing that the borderlands had no precisely recognized boundary.
• Wei’s border garrisons remained several hundred li from the gold mine.